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Note the smiley face at the end was to note a tongue in cheek comment. As for examples, I just didn't want to go down a rabbit hole of giving an example which could be looked at several different ways and getting into an argument of which way is the best way to look at it. Overall I'm just talking about trade barriers that aren't tariffs themselves and it's something the US even does, because everyone does it. With Trump, I'm not even saying he's right that the US is routinely on the bad end of those barriers, but simply that there has been an argument, at times by both sides of our political parties, stating we are on the wrong end. I can guarantee other countries can give arguments stating they are actually on the wrong end and I'm conceding that point. Broad examples are currency manipulation (china did this a lot for a long time, unless i'm wrong, I don't think that's considered as big of an issue now. Trumps tariff action may end up making this an issue again as others may move away from the dollar as the standard), quotas, administrative barriers (think required permits/licenses that simply don't get processed), bribery (some Jersey folks might just call that the cost of doing business), even censorship can be a barrier.

I almost gave a few anecdotes, but I'm cognizant that even with those, there are arguments against it being a trade issue. For instance currency manipulation, is it a trade issue? IMO, yes, but it's not only done for trade purposes. Even Obama focused on trade and did so because he felt there were issues which put the US at a disadvantage. (TPP gained traction under Obama). In the end, it was your party that for most of my adult life was more amenable to tariffs. If you want to argue your party is stupid, I'll happily concede and give you the win for this argument. 🙂 In the end, I'm not defending Trump. Rather you want to believe that people felt the US was on the wrong side of trade agreements in the past or not, my issue and complaint is with how he's handling it.

The entire point of trade is to take advantage of what you have to offer. So China has been able to offer cheap labor. In return we have cheaper access to products that had originally been manufactured here. So we lose manufacturing jobs, but the overall benefit is supposedly evened out by the cheaper cost of living. The UAW says we can still keep some of those jobs here, but corporations like Target, Walmart, Meijer, etc enjoys having that cheap product to sell and they tend to win out. Plus since it's made cheaply, it tends to break more, thus you have to buy it more often. In the end, are you getting the benefit you were promised? At that is just an example of what trade mismatch can bring. Now if you want to look at advantage, look at what Trump is doing with the gov't. He's cutting so many workers in areas that the service they provide can't be provided anymore. Yet he can say he isn't cutting the service, he can point to paperwork showing it's fully funded. In the end though, he is putting up a barrier to getting that service executed. Many countries have done this to avoid a trade war, they simply build obstacles that they can say are outside of trade itself, and use those obstacles against only those they want to keep out.

I almost pushed my 401k to just Money Markets / Bonds a few days ago. But I figured with so much tariff talk, that the 'drop' was already priced in. Crap, maybe it was to a point and we still saw what we saw, jeez. Bummed I didn't do it, but hey, not like I actually believe I'll be able to retire anyway.

Week of 3/31 The good - Wisconsin may have helped us get rid of Elon. The bad - The tariffs. And let me fully explain my thoughts because in some ways, I understand Trumps complaint. Other countries have take advantage of us and in turn, our corporate overlords have ensured the gov't doesn't push back to much so they can get their advantage too. There is a legitimate reason why the UAW isn't against these tariffs. But good god, you call this the art of the deal? It took reporters documenting what they saw with the tariffs to figure out what the US complaint was on tariffs *after* they had been announced and that's how other foreign leaders learned what the US was upset about. If the art of the deal is to confuse the **** out of your counterpart, then I guess the execution was spot on. And he's out there demanding interest cuts after pulling this ****. This is a big bold plan and even if you felt it was the right way to go, springing it on the entire world without any explanation shows just how in the clouds this administrations head is. He literally just seems to think everything is 'widgets' and companies can move plants and personnel on a dime.

...indicative of what was otherwise a normal person, who's kind of spiraling. Acting out based on what the last person that spoke to him about is par for the course with Trump.

Sorry about the news MB. What type of work do you do? Also, while I think you also have Trump derangement syndrome, I would love to see more TDS in congress.

I saw a conservative leaning guy on X laughing at the Tesla boycott because 'everyone knows boycotts don't put a dent in major corporations, just look at Budweiser, it's not like they went out of business'. Umm, it was your folks boycotting Budweiser. It also cost them market share.

So you're letting someone else make the determination for you...got it. I participate in both sides on this forum. You know, I say Trump is actively trying to become a dictator. I have issues with his foreign policy, his immigration policy, how he views checks and balances, how he thinks government should work for people, and his behavior as a whole. And unlike Biden which I have some issues with him too, many of my issues aren't just his policies, but the illegal or at best, ignorance of the laws and norms that drive government as a whole. That's also why i've voted damn near straight ticket dem for two presidential elections now despite still believing the democratic party has a ton of flaws in their policies. But I also voiced my concerns when Biden didn't even seem to realize he was in a debate on primetime TV once, so yeah, basically Trump/Biden must just be a toss up on who is worse. With Both Sidsin' like that, lord knows I'm probably a shoe in to vote for Trump 3.0 in 2028.

Oh whatever. You're just upset someone that you thought was 'on your side' pointed out the obvious with Biden. Both sides, hah!

This segment is about 20 minutes long, but it's a good reminder why so many are angry with their government and why some are blindly following DOGE.

Bad things - Week starting 3/24 I feel like this week is a toss up. I think most would say the obvious answer is the small issue where the adults in the room, errr sorry, the bros in the room put the lives of US soldiers in danger due to carelessness. Living in the midwest, I could 'vote for my own interest' and name the auto tariffs, but alas, merely honorable mentions. That said, this week i'm going with a continuation of last week, but not just because it's a continuation, it's also an escalation. With Rubio's presser the other day regarding another student, due process will not be afforded to folks with visas. (any republicans out there remember arguing slippery slope back in the day?) And with this week, they show they are not only going after the loud leaders of protests, but simply anyone that protests anything they don't like.

I definitely get they are trying to use it to dodge, my only point is aren't you actually admitting how much you screwed up if your comparing it to something you previously made clear was one of your biggest complaints about your opponent in the last 20 years?

On a side note, for awhile I had a security clearance and worked as a government contractor. We would have to use government approved pc's using government approved web conferences with each of those using government approved log in methods. On top of that, someone was required to take the lead on a call and document everyone on the call. And document is a loose word, as we would question who they were if we didn't recognize them and once we sat on a pri-1 outage call for 5 minutes without doing anything because 1 person refused to drop from the call where another person from the same department was unaware of who that person was. Turned out to be a legit employee that was covering another team and once a manager on their end confirmed it, we continued on with the call.

I went back and did a quick review with Hillary's emails. Much more similarities than I had remembered. The Same * Both were tied to wanting handheld devices to communicate. (now via app on smartphone, then blackberry) * Both, while unintentional, had classified info (now because Hegseth doesn't understand classification guidelines,then in part due to bad classification) * No harm came from the outcome of choosing to use their own method. Any differences? Hmm, maybe the fact that you actually brought in a person into that communication before the strike that you would go on to publicly state that they basically hate America. So at minimum, you're admitting you got lucky.

i'm not as confident as you that Obama knew.

In my opinion, which all of MAGA agrees with me on, is that was a big deal. So by comparing this to that, aren't you saying it's just as big of a deal?

When will people realize that there is a very thin line, and sometimes no line at all, between the 'well they did this!' response to an issue. Seems like today's right wing response to this leaked text is 'but Hillary's emails!'. Aren't you kind of saying that issue, which you felt was such a big deal before, is no longer a big deal? Or if you're trying to compare it, aren't you admitting this is a big deal? I don't get it.

holy ****, that's some crazy news. Mid terms can't get here fast enough.

UAW is happy about it, funny they don't think Trump won't **** them too.

He's on pace to have 162 home runs!!! Seriously though, I liked the approach at the plate by most. Grinded out enough runs to win most of their games last year.

I hope when we score 6 in the 9th they do a montage of all the celebrities with their jaws dropped instead of high fiving after the Ohtani HR.

Do you allow Margot to hit or bring in another pitcher and face Carps? This is why I hate ESPN.

https://mikepesca.substack.com/p/ny-times-jumps-the-turnstile-on-a?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share I know this isn't the stuff that makes headlines, but this is the stuff that annoys me with MSM.

Sadly, you're probably right. That said, this has legs I haven't seen in a bit and I think that's because of just how blatant it is, coupled with the fact that everyone involved knows they have to repeat the presidents lie, despite knowing how foolish they look. I texted a MAGA friend that loves the new press secretary and initially he seemed confused that she couldn't just claim it as a mistake. I reminded him that dear leader Trump would not allow her to keep the job if she did and he actually conceded. My concern now though is Trump has always been a magician. He's going to try and redirect and usually that means doing something pretty ****ing awful.